Japanese import sellers - post your experiences here!

[Vroomfunkel]

Seller : Yamatoku

Just thought I would post my experiences of dealing with this seller, who often has items on ebay, and also has an online shop ..

My experience so far has been - excellent! Have bought through ebay, and through the shop - all items have been delivered quickly, well packaged. Some of them do smell a little "smoky" but that may well be due to previous owners rather than the seller.

Also, I bought about $160 worth of goods, and the package was marked as "Used video games - value $8. I did not request this to be done, so I presume that he does this as standard on items airmailed without insurance (of course, if they are insured then the insured value would have to go on. But I have never had a problem with anything sent to me from Japan so I usually don't go for the insurance)

Lastly, there was one problem with my order - I bought Vampire Savior RAM box set, but when I examined the items, there was no RAM cart in the box. I emailed him, and had a response within 12 hours whereby he offered to refund half the cost of that item. I accepted and within an hour I had the refund.

All in all, I would highly recommend this seller

Vroomfunkel

[Mayhem]

Other Japanese eBay sellers I recommend are hit-japan and rabitds. Both are friendly, helpful and usually have a lot of good stock at moderate prices (ie. few bargains but nothing stupidly high).

[Vroomfunkel]

I would second rabitds, and I have an order from hit-japan on its way now, so we'll see. Perhaps if I change the title of the thread to a more generic one, then it could be stickied and people could add their experiences with Japanese / Asian sellers .. would seem like a fairly handy thing to have in an Import Forum.

I am also awaiting a package from nightgyr in Singapore, who has so far been exemplary - excellent shipping rates, superb English, asked what value to put on the label.

Maybe a general format for feedback on the sellers might be good. I would suggest:

- Seller Ebay Name
- Website address (if applicable)
- Speed / Quality of response to enquiries
- Shipping rates (Good / Average / Poor)
- What value will they declare on label?
- Level of written English
- Anything else

Would be especially handy if people would post any negative experiences as well as good ones, so that we can save each other from any such trouble if possible. As for me, I have had no bad experiences with Japanese sellers yet, so I can only post my praises

Vroomfunkel

[Daltone]

- Seller Ebay Name: macross126 (I think this guy has two addresses and has just registered with the US one. Might be wrong though.)

- Speed / Quality of response to enquiries: Wasn't exactly super fast on the response front, but the answers were informative.

- Shipping rates (Good / Average / Poor)

- What value will they declare on label? A bit lower than the actual value it would seem. Not bad at all

- Level of written English: Perfect

- Anything else: Minty fresh in the extreme. Best packaging I've ever seen.

....

The seller in the only bad import experiance I've had seems to have vanished. Huzzah!

[Funk Buddy]

Just thought I would post my experiences of dealing with this seller, who often has items on ebay, and also has an online shop ..

My experience so far has been - excellent! Have bought through ebay, and through the shop - all items have been delivered quickly, well packaged. Some of them do smell a little "smoky" but that may well be due to previous owners rather than the seller.

Also, I bought about $160 worth of goods, and the package was marked as "Used video games - value $8. I did not request this to be done, so I presume that he does this as standard on items airmailed without insurance (of course, if they are insured then the insured value would have to go on. But I have never had a problem with anything sent to me from Japan so I usually don't go for the insurance)

Lastly, there was one problem with my order - I bought Vampire Savior RAM box set, but when I examined the items, there was no RAM cart in the box. I emailed him, and had a response within 12 hours whereby he offered to refund half the cost of that item. I accepted and within an hour I had the refund.

All in all, I would highly recommend this seller

Vroomfunkel

Is it just me or did you not put who the seller was? I have dealt with tons of sellers and will add my imput later today.

[SegaTecToy]

- Seller Ebay Name - MACROSS126 / YAMATOKU
- Speed / Quality of response to enquiries - Good
- Shipping rates (Good / Average / Poor) - Good
- Level of written English - Good
- Anything else - Fast shipping and items in very good conditions. I will deal with them again.

[Funk Buddy]

- Seller Ebay Name: macross126 (I think this guy has two addresses and has just registered with the US one. Might be wrong though.)

- Speed / Quality of response to enquiries: Wasn't exactly super fast on the response front, but the answers were informative.

- Shipping rates (Good / Average / Poor)

- What value will they declare on label? A bit lower than the actual value it would seem. Not bad at all

- Level of written English: Perfect

- Anything else: Minty fresh in the extreme. Best packaging I've ever seen.

....

The seller in the only bad import experiance I've had seems to have vanished. Huzzah!

Yes Jay is a great seller. He lives in Japan, but and does have an address in the US. He has a site too but doesn't update it very often.

[Vroomfunkel]

Uh huh ... yeah, originally I had the name of the seller in the title .. but then I changed the title to make the post a little more generalised, but forgot that this would mean nobody would know what the first post was about

Fixed that now ... and the general consensus so far seems to be that Yamatoku is da bomb Let all take note!

Vroomfunkel

[maxlords]

I can also highly recommend the following eBay sellers:

palet_th
max-lords (when he has imports)
loose logic

I know there are a couple others but I can't remember.....

[gamergary]

Seller: ahurori
Everything arrived fast and in mint condition.

[Vroomfunkel]

Yes, I have dealt with pale_th and loose logic before.

Their English is not quite as good as Yamatoku ... and pale_th will not usually reply to any queries before the end of an auction, but I have had no trouble with goods or service from either.

As far as I remember pale_th will mark the exact value on the package, and loose_logic will mark it down some.

Vroomfunkel

[Daltone]

Ah, loose_logic, I seem to have bought something off them too. Not sure what it was (probably something NGPC related), but I don't recall having any problems. Not very helpful there lol

[Dire 51]

I've dealt with Yamatoku twice in the past, and both deals went extremely smooth. I was surprised at how fast their shipping was too (at least at the time, this was in 2001. Don't know if that's changed any since).

[geelw]

i've bought close to 300 items from yamatoku- they're da bomb, as the kids say. palet_th is great, natutabo is also great, rabit models itself off the palet model (and almost seems like the same shop, lol). loose logic is also qute awesome- he's the guy who i bought a lot of 70 mega drive games from (at an amazing price). there are some top hk sellers too, but i refuse to reveal my sources, lol (they're cheap, cheap, don't deal in bootleg gba crap, and i'd like to be able to get a few games before they get stripped, !)

as far as level of english, value declared and all that rot- it really doesn't matter unless you get ripped off and want to complain about something or the other. as far as communication goes- automatically assume you're dealing with someone who doesn't speak english as a first language, and any problems vanish in the wind, lol...

[Vroomfunkel]

- Seller Ebay Name - hit-japan
- Speed / Quality of response to enquiries - had no queries!
- Shipping rates (Good / Average / Poor) - Good
- Level of written English - Good, as far as I can tell
- Anything else - Placed low value on package. Items were in superb condition and packaged well.

Geelw ... oh, go on! You know you want to tell me all your sources! ... no, I completely understand. And as for the details about the level of English, etc ... it doesn't really matter to me either, but I tried to set up categories that others might find useful because I know there are some people to whom these things do matter.

Vroomfunkel

[Funk Buddy]

Ok, got off my butt and made a list. I have never had a problem with any seller in Japan so they're all good. Most of their English was excellent, around 90% I'd say. Shipping was in line for all of them, meaning I never felt ripped off. I can't think of the others, but I know their are more. I have bought from everyone in this list except videogameya.

Jackeccs 10/10
My first Japanese seller, top notch person then... but gone now.

Yamatoku (who hasn't bought something from them ) 9/10

Otaku.com and Otaku-UK 10/10

Otaku 10/10

Aloha 5-0 10/10 (Wonderswan games) Cliff's a great guy!

ramu-sydney 9/10

macross126 10/10 (Jay's great too!)

japan-games-n-other 9/10

loose_logic 8/10

negubon 10/10 (US)

ogenkikai 10/10 (US)

ahurori 8/10

dark70 10/10 (France)

digimall 10/10 (Hong Kong)

hit-japan 10/10

kyoto-exports 10/10

l_baggio_2001 10/10 (Hong Kong)

palet_th 10/10

jwdiamond 10/10 (Hong Kong) The same as loohgsfj, but swears they are different companies?!?

loongsfj 10/10 (Hong Kong)

numadpitt007 10/10 (US)

retrocrazy.com 9/10 (UK)

Simplesimon1966 10/10 (UK)

ukgamesource 10/10 (UK)

videogameya (never bought anything, but good expensive stuff)

neogeoman 10/10 (has some of the best hard to find stuff!)

nightgyr 10/10 (Hong Kong) FANTASTIC!

rabitds 9/10

champ_des_pins 10/10

etrade168 10/10 (US, but ships from Hong Kong)

[fcfcfc]

archaeopteryx

Not in Japan, but sells only Japanese games, including some rare Famicom stuff (also MSX, Sega Mark III, PC Engine, and Famicom Disk, as well as others) in mint condition. Used to be great: order on Sunday and have game(s) that Friday. But, last time I ordered, it took forever to receive the game and he would not respond to emails. He has not listed very much in quite a while. Wonder what happened.